Abnormal Phone Calls
by texaswookie
Summary: Buffy calls Helen over some of the abnormal problems that Sunnydale has.


Don't own any of the characters used here folks Joss owns Buffy and Sanctuary belongs to SyFy if I understand correctly. If I'm wrong someone tell me so this story doesn't get bumped. Thought I posted this one a long time ago.

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Buffy sighed as she dialed the phone number. They had to move fast before the abnormals got away. Despite her personal feeling towards what was left of the swim team, she had to protect them from people. She had agreed to do this, and despite what they had tried to do to her, she was willing to overlook it and focus on keeping them safe it was the least that she could do after everything else that had happened. It wasn't their fault that the coach used demon essence in his drug cocktail. It was their fault for breathing the stuff in when they knew the basics of what it was that they were breathing in though. They knew they were a kind of steroids, and had been perfectly fine with using the steam room as their very own drug emporium. So a part of her felt glad that they had gotten what they had.

This wasn't the way things were supposed to be happening though. The idea when they were setting up a Sanctuary installation in Sunnydale was that it was going to be a seldom used place, more of an observation station than an active station. Why was it that none of those things ever actually worked out for real like they did in theory? This was the second time in a few weeks though that she had to call in help for the non demonic though. First there had been Oz and that idiot werewolf hunter. They had spent the entire week roaming the Sunnydale forest looking for the werewolf, and had finally managed to find who it was. Never in a million years would she have guessed that the laconic guitarist that Willow liked was also really a werewolf. It brought the whole mild mannered reporter gig to a whole new level. She had done her job though, and helped Oz find a place to change at night.

Dr. Helen Magnus had wanted Oz to go to a werewolf colony. The werewolf had merely glanced at her and told her no Willow before going back to tuning his guitar like there was nothing to it. Helen hadn't been very happy, but had accepted his choice. She had won though, when it came to the other members of the Osborne family that were infected with the werewolf strain, and had shipped them off to a place where they would be much safer than if they were to try and remain in Sunnydale.

Now Buffy was back on the phone and calling for help in another matter. She waited patiently as the phone rang. She wondered if there would be anymore abnormals heading this way, and if there was anything that she could do about them. The whole abnormal thing was supposed to be something that she did on the side, not a full time job. It was her job as the Slayer to keep the world spinning not this part of the job. The sooner that they sent someone to become responsible for this place the happier that she would be, as it would allow her to focus more on her slaying and other things.

"Hullo?" Helen's voice came through the phone.

"Dr. Magnus, thank god." Buffy said with relief at hearing the voice. "I need your help, and a ship pronto."

"Buffy?" The surprised woman said. "Why do you need a ship?"

"Someone was playing around with drugs and magic, and they created a type of human, demon, merman hybrid. I'm not sure really what they technically are, but there are about a half dozen of them though. They need to be brought in for their own protection though." The blonde explained to the older woman.

"And why do they need protection? Merepeople are usually quiet capable of protecting themselves." Helen pointed out to her newest protégé.

"Because they aren't real mermen that's why." Buffy returned to the woman. "They're a side affect of drugs and magic. At the moment they're still close to the coastline, but sooner or later they're going to start getting braver and head farther and farther out. What happens if a fisherman catches them or they swim through the territory of another clan of mermen? Think of the trouble they could cause. They could expose both of our worlds if they were discovered."

This got Helen's attention as she was now listening to what it was that the blonde was telling her about the situation. "Very well, I'll send a ship and we'll hunt them down. We'll be there by tonight and you can help us hunt them down before they get to far out to sea."

"That's good. Any word yet on Kane?" Buffy asked curiously. She really didn't want the werewolf hunter coming back because she figured next time he might be somewhat ready for her.

"Yes as a matter of fact. Some of our people found him in another small town looking for another werewolf. We managed to get all of his weapon permits revoked, and are working on finding another way of dealing with him. Some have suggested keeping him on retainer to deal with some of the more dangerous types of abnormals, but I have my doubts if that would work out." Helen admitted, as she thought of the man that enjoyed the hunt.

"It might work though." Buffy said to her. "It would keep him from killing innocents if he was focused on the ones that are really dangerous, and if you can convince him to bring them in alive he might be worth having around. He'll probably never work with me, but I think that there might be some things that he'll work with us on. So now I guess all we have to worry about is getting the swim team into a safe habitat that they won't risk themselves or others."

"Yes, prepare yourself, I'll be there tonight and we'll head out when you usually patrol and do our business then. Hopefully it won't take more than a few hours. If it does take longer I'll figure some sort of excuse to keep you out of trouble with the school." Helen said as she was already planning on how best to deal with the problem the teenage fish men were going to cause them.

Buffy snorted at this. "You've never had to deal with Snyder before. Trust me he'll find a way to blame anything and everything on me no matter what it is that you say or do. Heck I won't even have to be there and I'll probably get blamed for something going wrong."

"Simply dreadful attitude for an educator to have." Magnus said unhappy at the idea of the man and his attitude toward students. "Any gear you would recommend for capture or things that you can give me? It would be nice to know what I should be prepared for since they aren't your average merman."

"Yeah, good point. To start off with they have legs." Buffy informed the other woman. "That means that they can survive in the water and on the surface. I have no idea as to what their top water speed is but I do know that they have a slime on them most of the time. Kind of give them a Swamp Thing look to them."

"You should know better than to insult Howard." Helen reprimanded the girl.

"Oops sorry," Buffy said. "Anyways, they're bipedal with no type of tail to assist them while they swim."

Helen coughed at that statement from the Slayer's observation of the creatures. "They don't have tails and they're bipeds? That would suggest that they'll be capable of hunting in the water and land and that they do not use Carangiform or Thunniform locomotion as most breeds of mer-people do though." She exclaimed as she tried to figure out how such creatures could have evolved.

"Yeah and they can outrun most things on land as well." Buffy told her with a grimace. "I tried to catch one of them in school, but it was even faster than I am. It practically disappeared on me."

"That is impressive considering your speed and lung capacity." Helen said having given the blonde a physical while she and Watson were in Sunnydale. Having a baseline on what a Slayer was capable of could help them someday.

"Yeah, they're also a bit stronger than your average human, but nowhere near as strong as I am." Buffy said as she recalled the attempted gang bang they had tried against her only to get a good old fashioned slayer beating handed to them. Considering one of them had tried to put the moves on her a few days ago she hadn't felt all that guilty over the move.

"That is a bit of good news." Helen said in agreement. It means that they don't have any mystical abilities other than the initial transformation.

"Yeah I managed to acquire a sample of the drug supplement that made the transformation possible." Buffy told her. it's a breathable aresol type steroid that enhances a persons ability in the water unfortunately it also creates a new type of merman as well.

"Good, we can analyze it and see if there isn't a way to reverse the process or to make sure that it can't harm anyone else." Helen said although a part of her was excited at the prospect of there being something else besides vampire blood that could cause a normal human being to change on such a level. The change in its own way was as mysterious and amazing as the changes that had happened to the Five all those years ago.

"We also need to discuss when you're going to have someone who can come out here and watch over the Sanctuary. I can't make trips like this all the time." Buffy informed the immortal woman. "I have duties here that I can't ignore." Thoughts of Angelus plagued her thoughts and she wondered how many would die without her here to curb the vampire's deadly urges. She hoped that he didn't realize she was gone or he would try and trace her or attack the others in the hopes that they would know where she was.

"I'm working on that, however there are few people that I would trust with such a position and would follow your lead when it comes to the supernatural aspect of things out there." Helen told her.

"I understand that, however once word gets out about this Sanctuary your going to need a full time staff since I can only perform the odd job here and there. I can't devote to it full time like you." Buffy shot at her doing her best to keep her annoyance over that down.

"No I suppose you can't." Helen said in agreement. "I think I presumed that with your memories that you would be able to complete all of the various tasks with minimum help."

"No offense and all Magnus, but I have a ton of problems right now with being a Slayer and there's no telling how many people may die because I have to get on a boat and go fishing for the Sunnydale swim team. I have enough problems dealing with the hellmouth right now since I have an insane vampire out on the loose." Buffy explained as she thought of Angelus and all of the things that he had done so far. "I didn't mind so much when all it meant was storing the bits and pieces of Ted away in the warehouse but things are getting bad out here. I really need to be focused on the problems that are hellmouth related not the ones that are science related."

"You're right perhaps I've taken advantage of you. Helen said as the girl cut loose a bit over her problems. "I think I'm beginning to see how wrong the assumption was that you could do it all was." It seemed that they were more alike than Helen had known since this girl had a love with a monster as well. "I shall send someone over tonight to take official command over and try and find someone else to do the job on a permanent basis."

"Thank you," Buffy said. "Now I need to make another run through some of the cemeteries and see if I can't catch any of them trying for an early night."

"Very well, we'll see you in a few hours then," Helen told her. "And Buffy, keep your head up it will get better." The immortal said knowingly.

"I hope so, I really hope so." Buffy returned as she hung the phone up so that she could head out.


End file.
